About TIP

The America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Sciences (COMPETES) Act, Pub. L. 110-69, was enacted on August 9, 2007, to invest in innovation through research and development, and to improve the competitiveness of the United States. Section 3012 of the COMPETES Act established TIP for the purpose of assisting U.S. businesses and institutions of higher education or other organizations, such as national laboratories and nonprofit research institutions, to support, promote, and accelerate innovation in the United States through high-risk, high-reward research in areas of critical national need. High-risk, high-reward research is research that:

has the potential for yielding transformational results with far-ranging or wide-ranging implications;

addresses critical national needs that support, promote, and accelerate innovation in the United States and is within NIST’s areas of technical competence; and

is too novel or spans too diverse a range of disciplines to fare well in the traditional peer-review process.

Key Features of TIP

Novel Purpose: TIP addresses societal challenges not being addressed in areas of critical national need with benefits that extend significantly beyond the proposers.

Societal Challenges: TIP concentrates on those challenges that justify government attention.